UpGuard attended the DevOps Enterprise Summit recently, and we had a blast. We talked to people non-stop for three days, gave countless UpGuard demonstrations, caught a few talks, made some new friends, and learned a lot from attendees about the kinds of challenges they face implementing DevOps. (And hey, did you guys try those breakfast burritos they had on day 2? Delicious.)

In some ways it was a different type of crowd from a DevOpsDays event, which are also fantastic, but we recognized common themes:

"I know we're making the transition to DevOps, but I'm not sure the first steps to take." (Hopefully the excellent presentations helped with some of that.)

"We're on the road to transition, but are facing a hurdle with (monitoring/automation/management/culture)."

There's a discussion that's been popping up recently on Twitter about whether an "Enterprise DevOps" exists, or should exist, and if it does exist, is it the same or different from "regular DevOps."

I think it's safe to say that Enterprise DevOps does indeed exist, and that, while its end goals of continuous delivery, less risk, and greater agility are common, the road getting there is most definitely different.

Let's be honest — naturally, a decades-old enterprise with thousands of employees running legacy equipment and working with legacy management will have a different DevOps experience from a startup that's just 3 people, their laptops, and github. To say anything else is to stubbornly blind yourself to the reality that every company has different ideas, different goals, and different priorities.

But these things don't separate us or make DevOps as a movement any less relevant. If anything, admitting that Enterprise DevOps enthusiasts have different problems but still share common ideals should help bring together the fresh-out-of-college startup set and the seasoned seen-it-alls.

All in all, we had a really nice time meeting everyone at the DevOps Enterprise Summit, and we're already looking forward to next year!